THE FRUIT TRADE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 998, 17 April 1891, Page 23

THE FRUIT TRADE.

During the ensuing session of Parliament a convention of dairy farmers and representatives of dairy factories it has been suggested should be held in _ Wellington, to discuss various matters in connection with the dairying industry. A suggestion has been made that a convention of fruit-growers should be hold at the same time. The recent shipment of apples from Canterbury having realised good paying prices in that. most crucial of all markets, the open auction of Covent Garden, London, has created great interest amongst fruit growers. The fact of colonial apples realising from 15s to 20s per case, at auction, is a great inducement to our fruit growers to cultivate the English market. As we have often pointed out, there is an almost unlimited market for our fruit in England, from the fact that we can deliver it there at a time when tho English market is bare, and consequently paying prices can be obtained. About the middle of February fine, ripe peaches were exhibited for sale on the windows of one of the leading fruiterers in the West End of London. These wore largely bought up at sixpence each, retail. Upon inquiries being made it was found that they had come from South Africa. An enterprising settler there had an unusually fine crop of peaches. The local market was so glutted, that his neighbours, who also had big crops, let their fruit rot on the trees, rather than go to the expense and trouble of gathering . The one grower, however, set his wits, to work. He constructed light yet strong wooden cases, with numerous divisions and partitions. He gathered his peaches at the right moment, packed each one in cotton wool, and shipped them on spec to Covent Garden, where they fetched over threepence each, wholesale. The dealer could have sold hundreds if not thousands of cases at the same price, for ripe peaches in February are a luxury in London, and as a luxury largely sought after. This South African settler made money out of his experiment, and will doubtless devote all his attention to the London market. _ . There is no secret about working up a fruit trade with England. The Tasmanians are striving tooth and nail to cultivate the trade. We learu from a private letter that during the month of March one firm in Tasmania shipped to London twenty-eight thousand cases of apples. The only secret of the trade is this: Ship none but the best-keeping varieties — principally the firm dessert apples. Let them be picked at the right time —that is before they are actually ripe. It is important that each apple be hand-picked —not knocked off the trees in a lazy manner —but handled as carefully as one would do eggs ; so that not the slightest bruise , will occur. Then each kind of apple should be carefully graded, so that each apple in the box should be as near as possible all of one size, shape, and colour. Another important item is that each case should have plainly branded upon it the name of the variety of the fruit, the place at which it was grown, the name of the grower, and the net and gross weight of the box. Apples gathered and packed in the manner suggested, and sent in the cool chamber should arrive as the fruit did recently from Canterbury—in a sound condition. Therealsecret in the expoit fruit trade is—honest work, care and attention. These is no mystery about it. Any grower with common sense can find a market for all he can raise in London. There is no fear of glutting the market at that time of the year when our fruit reaches. England. London can absorb more apples then than the whole of the Australasian Colonies can produce for a long time to come. We should like to see all these points fully discussed, and it strikes us that a conference of fruit growers in Wellington during the coming session, in con junction with dairy matters, might lead to the opening up of a profitable and growing trade.